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'World of Warcraft' Remixed Into Work of Pop Art

Any avid gamer — especially those who play World of Warcraft — can recognize a video game by the sounds alone. Those dings, squeaks, blasts and crashes are so particular — it's like a human's fingerprint.

10 Most Stressful Moments in Video Games

1. Drowning Sonic

If you've played any Sonic the Hedgehog game, you’ve no doubt experienced the panic when our poor blue hero finds himself underwater for too long.

If a reduced-speed Sonic and the disorienting water modes weren’t enough, the frantic soundtrack and the inevitable countdown from “5” are absolutely unbearable. Sega mastered the horrors of running out of time underneath the ocean, so tread those levels if you dare.

2. Disturbing the Witch in Left 4 Dead

There are plenty of scary zombies in this post-apocalyptic shooter, but none get the heart racing quite like the Witch. If hearing her cries from far away and shakily trying to sneak past her slumped-over body -- which is invariably right where you need to go -- without a flashlight weren’t enough, waking her is even worse.

The Witch goes after whoever wakes her first and immediately incapacitates that person, so furious backpedaling to get her away from you is a challenge in itself. If she does manage to grab you, then good luck, because you’ll have to fight her off sideways and pray your friends or the AI can save your sorry butt.

3. Hiding in Amnesia

Make no mistake: All of Amnesia is stressful as you wander around the creepy estate trying to uncover disturbing secrets.

But nothing ever beats the fearful, frantic scrambling to find a hiding place from the horrific gatherers -- deformed humanoids that wander the halls and will kill you on sight. With no weapon to fight back, just finding a closet or escape route can drive players to tears. Waiting the appropriate length to ensure safety is also harrowing, particularly since hiding in a totally enclosed area is the best way to survive.

You may need to take a breather after this one.

4. Fighting Satan in the The Binding of Isaac

The Binding of Isaac is brutal. The top-down Roguelike indie game has unforgiving, labyrinthian levels. When you die, you don’t get a second chance. You have to start all the way over, as a blank slate.

By the time you even make it to Satan, the journey has been long. In order to fight him, you must have already separately killed Mom and Mom’s Heart 10 different times, which is a feat for any player. Then, it’s another nine twisting and turning levels, filled with increasingly more difficult enemies and rarer item drops. Finally, the last part of Sheol, where Satan lives, is essentially a maze full of bosses -- not the easiest thing in the world to navigate.

If by some miracle, you make it to Satan alive, you have to dodge three separate forms, culminating in evading Satan’s meaty legs while dodging exploding leeches that continually respawn.

Good luck.

5. Sending Pikmin to the Onion in Pikmin

For a large part of the game, Pikmin is actually a really happy and upbeat adventure. As Captain Olimar, you have the great task of herding and delegating tasks to little Pikmin, who obey your whims enthusiastically. Heck, they’ll even pick up your ship parts and bring them right back to you.

But, at the end of the day, once the little twinkle of the chimes indicates it’s time to go, it’s hard not to stress the heck out trying to find all of the little envoys you’ve dispatched throughout the day. You may think you know where all the Pikmin on the field are, but nothing is worse than sending most of your workers to their respective Onions only to find out that you’re missing 10 or 15 dudes out in the middle of nowhere. If you can’t find them before the timer runs out, they will unfortunately, be eaten by the local predators.

6. Getting out of Zebes in Super Metroid

After traveling through a handful of perilous sectors, defeating the planet’s biggest bosses, venturing down into the most dangerous part of the world, fighting the most dangerous, mobile Mother Brain, and surviving one of the most dramatic boss fights, you’d think it would be a cakewalk outta there.

Nope.

Immediately after destroying Mother Brain, Samus must run from the core of the planet back to her ship on the surface. In four minutes. What comes next is just as, if not more, stressful than the final boss itself, and that’s saying something.

7. Chainsaw Hedge Maze Mayhem in Zombies Ate My Neighbors

The first few levels of the SNES B-movie horror classic Zombies Ate My Neighbors feel pretty approachable. You wander through a level, finding your seemingly ignorant neighbors before monsters find them first, tossing any sort of weapons that you can find. It’s very straightforward and not too hard.

But then level four (level four!), “Chainsaw Hedge Maze Mayhem” cuts that noise really quick. Trapped in, as the title suggest, a classic garden hedge maze, you must wander through it while being stalked by tons of Chainsaw Maniacs. The worst part is that you can’t just break down the garden to get to your neighbors. Instead, you must shoot valuable bazookas, use rare potions, or somehow trick the Chainsaw Maniacs into cutting it for you.

It’s not the hardest of the 48 levels in the game, but it prepares you for spontaneously transforming werewolves, relentless vampires and 20-foot babies. Be prepared to sweat all over your controller.

8. Running from the Angry Sun in Super Mario Bros. 3

There is perhaps nothing more stressful in any of the games in the Mario franchise than walking into a level and seeing that Angry Sun staring right back at you. The sun swoops down mercilessly as you race to the other side. It’s a pain in the butt that happens early in World 2, and it’s easily one of the hardest levels in the first half of the game.

A later appearance of the Angry Sun is also definitely a weed-out level if you were smart enough to check your GamePro FAQ and do all of the necessary steps to find the warp whistles and skip to the end of the game. Any cleverness you feel after switching to the new world is quickly dissipated once you hit the second level and start breaking into a full-on run trying to make it to the end.

Think you’re taking on Bowser in a breeze? This will make you think otherwise.

9. Fighting Motaro in Mortal Kombat 3

After fighting through the merciless tower of enemies in Mortal of Kombat 3, not to mention multiple endurance levels with more than one combatant and tons of cheap, overpowered AI moves, Kintaro is really a spirit-killer. The sub-boss before Shao Kahn, whether it be Goro, Kintaro or Motoro, is always much more difficult to predict and overpowered than the average enemy -- and can sometimes be more difficult that Shao Kahn himself.

Midway has gotten a lot of flak throughout the years for making their boss combatants even more overpowered and cheap than usual, but Motaro breaks all the rules. In addition to being able to teleport in and out of the frame at will, making him entirely unhittable, Motaro can also deflect projectiles and shoot lasers from his tail.

Pray for some great spamming moves and more than a little luck, because he will stress (and rage) you out.

10. Time Limit Declassifieds in Gears of War: Judgement

A lot of the Declassified options in Gears of War: Judgement are stressful, and that’s on purpose. These optional mission enhancers are meant to make your time fighting through the city of Halvo Bay even more challenging. But nothing is more stressful than the time limit options, and you will find yourself on the brink of rage-quitting from the stress.

The reason these missions are more stressful than any part of the game, even the boss fight, is because the game’s AI spawning system (which adapts to the player’s style and sends enemies to “shake up” the gameplay) doesn’t let up when the mission is chosen. The best technique is to keep leaning on the Roadie Run and pray that you can kill necessary enemies as efficiently as possible.

This is a true time limit challenge, so don’t be surprised if you need to get some fresh air once it’s over.

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